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WarZ Hands On

Sitting down to play The War Z for the first time feels like kicking the tires of an untrustworthy car. I feel the need to rattle the chassis, to jiggle handles, check for gum under the seat, listen for groans in the engine—to apply percussion with the expectation that some zombie muffler will fall loose.

Approaching a hands-on opportunity with this sort of diagnostic mindset is unusual. But The War Z is unusual; when the online survival game was suddenly announced in July, we reacted with mild hope and major skepticism.

Makers Hammerpoint Interactive were promising a fuller-featured PvP/PvZ world than DayZ while cribbing concepts and mechanics from it, and it was promising you’d be able to play it this autumn—before the final version of DayZ is ready.

Half an hour with The War Z isn’t long enough to suss every concern I have with the game, but my initial test drive of an alpha version was more encouraging than I thought it’d be.

They're really going to get away with using that name when there's a World War Z film coming out next year?

Apparently current cut is crap. They are about to or have recently reshot a lot of stuff, and it may not be a salvageable project. Do big names like Pitt get to add clauses to their contracts to bury shit that might hurt their careers? I think if they were going to rename the game it would have happened by now (although it is under the radar a bit).

Do big names like Pitt get to add clauses to their contracts to bury shit that might hurt their careers?

They can refuse to do promotion (interviews for magazines and TV, appearances on Morning shows and chat shows and so on) for a film which is often the same thing. If big names aren't doing promotion theatres wont think they can make as much money from it so it'll be shown on fewer screens so fewer people hear about it etc. etc.

War Inc. is hilarious, but might offend some Bush supporting Americans.

The War Z looks like it could be interesting, but I often think the only way to experience this sort of stuff in Day Z is through an unfinished mod. Something about polish and balance that actually takes away from an experience like that.